Dark Tales and Flash Fun - Free

Dark Tales and Flash Fun brings together my extensive collection of drabbles (100 word stories) with three short stories I wrote for other publications. And, to celebrate it's release... it's free.

Here's the blurb.

In this anthology of wonderfully imagined tales we encounter captivating twists and turns, laugh out loud moments and intriguing entertainment from start to finish. The subject matter includes demons and vampires, Hollywood and electric chairs… there’s even a seasick seagull.

For more about me and my books, please check have a look at my website.

“No. ‘It’s obviously a joke,’ I said, but then she smelt the perfume.”

“OK. The smell brought the hell?”

“No. ‘Got squirted in a department store,’ I said. That’s when she found the panties.”

“Right! That’ll be the row now, then?”

“No. I told her they were a present. ‘For me?’ she asked. ‘Nope,’ I said, ‘sure you’d never fit into those’… and that’s when the row started.”

Author’s Note. As one (female) reader pointed out, all he had to do was say the present was in fact for his wife... no woman would ever say that he'd bought the wrong size, particularly not a size too small! So there's the proof, if proof were needed, that women are much smarter than men.

For more about me and my books, please check have a look at my website.

The first headline to catch my eye stated ‘UK is Slipping Down Global League Tables in Reading and Geography’. Apparently we’re languishing twenty places behind Estonia. It appears that few of our children would understand ‘languishing’ nor could they pinpoint Estonia on a map.

The next headline read ‘Overuse of Antibiotics is a Ticking Time Bomb’. Bacteria are cleverly adapting and becoming resistant to the drugs. The growing resistance poses a bigger danger to the nation than terrorism.

Depressed, I stopped reading, it seems our kids are getting dumber, bacteria are getting smarter… this is not going to end well.

For more about me and my books, please check have a look at my website.

Baaaaaaarrfff. There I go, sick again. This is ludicrous. I’m constantly seasick and I’m supposed to be a SEA-gull, for goodness sake.

I can’t take this anymore. There’s nothing else for it. I spread my wings and start my funny little run across the top of the water. Eventually, I lift off gracefully before the next wave swooshes in. I climb steadily up into the clear blue sky and soon catch a warm air current. I soar, rather majestically, above the hateful ocean.

Another drabble from Dark Tales and Flash Fun... and the book's free at the moment.

Starfish

Last night’s storm had littered the beach with thousands of starfish. Ahead of me a young boy stopped occasionally to throw one back into the ocean.

“They’ll die if left on the sand,” he told me when I caught up.

“There are too many, you’re not going to make much of a difference,” I said.

He tossed another starfish into the sea. “I made a difference to that one!”

He hadn’t seen the seals which were catching and eating every one he threw. I hadn’t the heart to tell him. He was too young to have his idealistic dreams crushed.

Author’s Note. Inspired by The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977). Many motivational speakers use the starfish story (without the seals!) to counter the argument which many people use as an excuse for inaction - ‘I’m just one person, I can’t make a difference’. The Dalai Lama countered the same argument in a different way “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”